Pumpkin Buns Galore

It is almost a routine now that I make buns and breads twice a week. So I am constantly looking out for good bread recipes. My recent trip to Kinokuniya was pretty fruitful (thanks to Anncoo's mention about the sale), because I managed to purchase "65度C 汤种面包"by Yvonne C, yippee! Even though I have already tried several 汤种 recipes, I am still excited I got this book, knowing there are still several interesting recipes yet to be tried. ;)) So please bare with me if you see me coming up with more and more bread posts. :) I guess my family & I can never get tired of soft, fluffy , yummy breads. :) My post today is Pumpkin Buns with assorted fillings, which I made a week ago, not from the new cookbook though, *sorry*. Next time perhaps? Although I make pumpkin breads before, this one is a new recipe I wanted to try out. Why pumpkin? Well I wanted to make something with pumpkin in lieu of Fall season, lol! :)

I made with 3 kind of fillings. The rose shaped buns are filled with lotus paste while the spiral ones are with red bean paste. The 3rd kind would be heart shaped Tuna Mayo Buns.

I am sure you know that Quinn and Happy Home Baker had tried making these tuna heart buns too. Then just yesterday, while I was in the middle of this post, I saw Jessie from Hearty Bakes, too posted up some lovely Tuna Mayo Heart buns. Such coincidence, heehee. :)) Looks like we are craving for the same thing!! Lol! Anyway, here is the pumpkin bread recipe I tried, thanks to Qi Qi :

Ingredients for Pumpkin Bread:
320g bread flour
80g cake flour
150ml cold water
20g milk powder
40 whole egg
30g sugar
120g mashed steamed pumpkin
4g instant yeast
30g unsalted butter, room temperature

Filling:
100g lotus paste
100g red bean paste
Tuna Mayo
- 1 can of tuna in water, drained off water and mix with 3 tbsp of mayo, 1/4 salt , 1/2 tsp sugar & 1/4 tsp pepper.
Method:

• Mix all dough ingredients except for butter together in a large mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Place on work area to knead or mixer to do the kneading. Knead the dough till it is not sticky, about 20 minutes.
• Add the unsalted butter in and continue to knead till the dough is shiny and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, pull a small piece off and stretching it with your fingers. If dough is very elastic and pulls to almost see through without breaking, then it's done.
• Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for at least 90 minutes to 2hrs.
• Once it's doubled, punched out the air and divide the dough to 65g portions, roll round and cover to let rest for 10 minutes before shaping.
• Fill each dough portion with either lotus, red bean paste. As for the heart shape buns, please kindly hop over the Quinn's blog for detail. :)

These are moulded into mini roses...hope they look like roses to you. :P Made quite many of these to pass some to my MIL and mum to enjoy. :)

Love the spiral red bean paste version. I was a little worried while shaping these, that the paste will ooze tout during baking and will be way too messy to even hold it. :P Good thing it didn't. :)) Will show you guys the shaping method next time. :P

Again showing and tempting you all a shot of the bun before being devoured. This is a really nice and soft recipe, and my family loved it! And considering it's a direct method, no starter dough or overnight waiting, this is a keeper! Will definitely make this recipe again, but will try with other root vegetables. :) *Exciting!!*

Thought of putting up another muffin recipe together with this post, but not much free time left. So will safe it for next round then. Anyway, wishing all a super nice long weekend ahead and Happy Deepavali to all our dear Hindu friends! Cheerio!!;))